Author: Hector Avalos

Hector Avalos is professor of Religious Studies at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. Avalos is one of the few openly atheistic biblical scholars in academia. He is the author or editor of nine books, including Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence (Prometheus Books, 2005); The End of Biblical Studies (Prometheus Books, 2007); and Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Bliblical Scholarship (Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2011).

Jesus Before the Gospels, by Bart Ehrman (New York: HarperOne, 2016, ISBN 978-06-228520-1). 326 pp. Hardcover, $27.99. For evangelical apologists, the search for the historical Jesus centers often on the existence of supposed witnesses very close to, or from within, his actual lifetime. Accordingly, we supposedly can trust those sources because memories would be fresh …

Regular readers of Free Inquiry are probably familiar with some of the basic statistics regarding unbelief. People who describe themselves as having no religion (“Nones”) are increasing, and church attendance is probably not as high as has been believed by some.* While I have had my doubts in the past, I believe that the secularization …

In the Name of God: The Evolutionary Origins of Religious Ethics and Violence, by John Teehan (Malden, Mass.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010, ISBN 978-1-4051-8381-9) 258 pp. Paper $16.47. Evolutionary and cognitive psychology are now at the forefront of explaining the origin and function of human morality. In this book, In the Name of God: The Evolutionary Origins …

Examining whether unjustified beliefs are really the best medicine Shannon Nixon was a 16-year-old Pennsylvanian with highly treatable diabetes. Shannon, however, had parents who believed that faith alone could cure her. Shannon died in June 1996, and her parents, Dennis and Lorie Nixon, were convicted on April 22, 1997, of involuntary manslaughter. In 1991, Shannon’s …

Prayer has become a new cottage industry. Within the last five years the New York Times has listed as best- sellers at least a half-dozen books extolling the value of prayer in some form.1 Cover stories have appeared in pop-ular magazines like Newsweek, and television programs such as “Dateline NBC” have devoted entire shows to …